There are a number of reasons why I care about climate change, but the biggest one is that I care about humanity. I like us, as a species, and I want us to continue to exist for as long as we can, and I’d like for there to be as much human happiness as possible during that existence. Climate change is one of the biggest large-scale threats to that, but it’s far from the only threat. I realize that as small as my platform currently is, it still feels irresponsible to block exclusively about climate change, and to ignore the other problems in human society.
Bigotry – both individual and institutional – also represents a massive threat, and one that has done a huge amount of damage throughout recorded human history. With every form of bigotry, there seems to be a group of people who insist that it doesn’t exist, and right now in the U.S. that denial seems to be strongest for rape culture and racism.
I’m sure you’ll all be just shocked to discover that this post centers on the absurdly light sentence of convicted rapist Brock Turner. This is less of an essay than it is the result of the thoughts that have been going through my head on this over the last few days.
I’ve been pleasantly astonished by the amount of agreement I’ve seen around the internet that this was unquestionably rape, and unquestionably Turner’s fault. My guess is that that is largely due to the presence of witnesses who stopped him, caught him, and held him till the police got there. From what I can tell, the odds of a rape being witnessed and stopped like that are near zero.
According to the prosecution, this rape came after “Turner was accused of aggressively touching a woman who was dancing at a party at the same frat house the weekend before.” Which indicates that this may not have been an isolated incident. Certainly, I doubt that had he gotten away with it, he would have stopped at assaulting just one woman. That incident wasn’t brought up at the trial, but I assume it came up when discussing sentencing, and was ignored. Or maybe the Judge decided to add a couple days to the prison sentence? Either way, it seems that Turner’s lesson for this is that as long as he keeps insisting he wants to preach morality, he’ll be given light punishment at most.
At the same time, we’re hearing from another college athlete who served over five years for a rape he didn’t commit. He also had no criminal record, violent or otherwise, and had far less evidence supporting his conviction, so why the difference in punishment?
“I would say it’s a case of privilege,” Banks said. “It seems like the judge based his decision on lifestyle. He’s lived such a good life and has never experienced anything serious in his life that would prepare him for prison. He was sheltered so much he wouldn’t be able to survive prison. What about the kid who has nothing, he struggles to eat, struggles to get a fair education? What about the kid who has no choice who he is born to and has drug-addicted parents or a non-parent household? Where is the consideration for them when they commit a crime?”
Maybe the judge thought poverty prepares people for prison? Or maybe – just maybe – it’s because Banks is black, and even ignoring all the racism in policing, plea deals, and trials, black people convicted of crimes get harsher sentences than white people convicted of the same crimes.
But of course this is not just an issue of racism. This is an intersection of systemic racism and the bigotry against women that manifests as rape culture. By now, most of you have probably seen the statement made in court by Turner’s victim. It contains a graphic, wrenching account of both what happened to her, how she experienced it, and how she feels about it. A couple days ago, I would have said that if you haven’t read it, you should. I’m still going to say something similar, but there’s something else to be said first.
With some very, very unlikely exceptions, every single person reading this knows multiple victims of sexual assault. You may not know who it is, but sexual assault is so common that it’s a virtual certainty that you know someone who has been through it. Not only that, many, many victims of sexual assault have spoken about about their experiences, about what it was like trying to get justice, or to prevent others from being assaulted. They have spoken out on how they felt, and how they healed, and how it changed their views of the world around them.
My desire to share this statement by Turner’s victim, and demand that everybody read it, comes from two places. The first, and lesser, reason, is that it is eloquent and compelling. It’s also my only impression of that particular woman, other than knowing that she is a fellow human, and she was the victim of a vile assault. The second reason to share it is the feeling that it’s a message that many people still haven’t heard before. Can that be? Again, we all know somebody who has been sexually assaulted. I’ve listened to friends talk about their experiences, and I’ve read statements and articles similar to this one many times. How can it be that there are people who don’t understand the devastation that can be wrought by sexual assault?
And yet it is clear that there are such people. Many accounts I’ve heard include somebody in the victim’s life telling them to “just get over it”, and it’s not always men saying that. It’s also abundantly clear that the judge who sentenced Turner to 6 months with a shot at early release for good behavior, plus a couple years of parole, did not consider the crime to be particularly serious. It’s also clear that Brock Turner, his father, and his childhood friend don’t consider the crime to be particularly serious.
It’s also clear, from conversations I’ve had online, that a number of people don’t fault Turner Sr. for the content of his letter. After all, they say, it’s not HIS fault his son is a rapist, and he’s just defending his son like any father should. Sorry folks, but to paraphrase P.Z., fathers do matter. Context matters. Neither Brock Turner, nor the millions of other rapists in the United States grew up in a vacuum. In an ideal society, there would probably still be some rapists, but this is far from an ideal society, and we know that people are influenced by the culture they live in.
And what sort of culture do we live in? Well, if you’re not clear on how that relates to this rape case, why don’t you start with the victim’s statement. Read it more than once, if you need to, and see if you can see some indication of how rape victims are viewed. It should be clear to anyone familiar with the facts of this case that this woman was injured by her attacker, that he took no care whatsoever for her wellbeing, and exposed her to infection through getting dirt and other stuff on external and internal wounds, and then when caught, he tried to escape. And yet what did the defense do? Anybody? They did what the defense teams of rape defendants always do. They did everything they could to make the jury think that she wanted it. That the whole thing – pine needles and all – was just fine by her.
Like so many others, this trial revolved on how effectively the defense team could make the jury lose all respect for the victim, and to see her as undeserving of bodily autonomy. I’m glad that she’s anonymous. I think she deserves all the privacy she wants. I’m also glad that she wrote that letter, because nobody reading it can pretend that there’s not a human behind those words, full of life, and thoughts, and energy, and potential.There’s another fun word: “potential”. Someone named Louisa Curry put it better than I could:
Everything about how our society handles rape indicates that we don’t view it as a serious crime. The fact that marital rape wasn’t illegal across the U.S. until 1993; the way rape victims are questioned by police and courts and anybody else with an oar to put in; the way rapists are so often considered victims whose futures have been taken away; the way a young woman feels comfortable saying that Brock Turner isn’t a rapist, he’s just an “idiot boy” who had too much to drink – “rapist” only applies to people who kidnap strange women and rape them – not a fine, upstanding young man with so much potential; the way women are portrayed in media, and the way rapists are are portrayed and even lauded in entertainment (James Bond, anybody?); the way we’re asked to consider the talent of a rapist who also happens to be a film director – all of that says that this is not a crime to be taken seriously. Not like murder. Not like *shudder* smoking pot
That is a culture in which rape is acceptable. That’s fucking rape culture. It’s also not all that surprising from a culture the predecessors of which viewed women as property, or if they were people, they were not real people. In the end, a majority of people who read this probably already know everything I’m saying, and many of you probably know it better than I do. But as I said in the beginning, I care about climate change because I care about my fellow humans, and as long as any portion of our population is being treated as lesser than the rest of us, there is no good reason to ignore it.
My problem with the way this is being talked about is that caging this human being for six months is viewed as no big deal, as if it isn’t a brutal thing to do to a person. I would like to see social justice types start talking about jail as what it is – caging a person without their consent. Too often, it is viewed as no big deal, which is a screwed up take on consent.
Yeah, Edward Gemmer, that’s clearly the most important thing to bring up about this particular crime. Not the fact that black people routinely get much longer sentences for much more minor crimes. Not the fact that people around him are claiming that he shouldn’t be punished at all. Not the fact that it actually is incredibly rare for a rapist to be punished.
Look, I’m not remotely keen on how the US justice system works. I don’t think prisons should be totally ruled out, because some people do need to be separated from society, but they absolutely should be more than just locking someone in a cage. But this is so very, very much not the context for that discussion.
I completely disagree. When someone is caged, their caging is ALWAYS part of the discussion. It is extremely common to act as if jail and prison is no big deal, which is why 2.3 million people are currently being treated like rabid dogs.
Wow, someone came along immediately and proved your point! Yay?
Yeah, the statistics on sexual assault victims are really disturbing. I was working on a paper about women’s self defense and was horrified at how many women I knew who, once they heard what I was working on, took me aside privately to tell me about their ordeals. Some very hair-raising tales. Those statistics came alive before my very eyes and it was not a pretty sight.
@Edward Gemmer:
The victim in this rape will have to live the rest of her life with the damage, physical and psychological, that was forced upon her. This privileged white athlete might as well have been sentenced according to the “affluenza” rules. He raped a young woman. Rape is a violent crime. Yes, jail/prison is a harsh environment, but he should have thought about the consequences before he committed the crime. It is absolutely sickening that he is getting off with such a light sentence. I do not care if he is a first-time offender. With the exposure that rape has been getting lately, especially on college campuses, there is no way that he can claim ignorance that what he did was criminal behavior.
@Edward Gemmer:
The human being in question is a convicted rapist. More than that, he’s a convicted rapist who, by his own statements, is proven to be unrepentant and in fact possibly even oblivious of what it is he’s been convicted of. Caging him for six months is being viewed as a very big deal because that’s nowhere near long enough.
Well, on the one hand yes, your nation does seem to imprison people at a ridiculously high rate compared to civilised countries, and especially seems to like imprisoning people who pose no immediate danger to the public (e.g. drug users). On the other hand, most long periods and many short periods of imprisonment follow long, complex, expensive trials, so you can’t claim it isn’t taken seriously.
Given the facts in evidence and the guilty verdict, what would you consider an apt sentence for a convicted rapist?
I’m a social justice type and of course jail is caging a person without their consent. If it wasn’t, it wouldn’t be punishment. That punishment, however, should be consistently applied regardless of the person’s skin colour or status in life, and harsher crimes should have harsher sentences. I can see putting a repeat shoplifter away for six months. But a rapist? Seriously, you think six months is enough for rape?
@sonofrojblake,
On the other hand, most long periods and many short periods of imprisonment follow long, complex, expensive trials, so you can’t claim it isn’t taken seriously.
The vast majority of incarcerations occur before trial and after a plea. Only a small fraction of incarcerations occur after a trial – I haven’t looked at the numbers lately but less than 5 percent certainly.
Given the facts in evidence and the guilty verdict, what would you consider an apt sentence for a convicted rapist?
What is the goal of the punishment? To brutalize him? Six months in a cage is brutalizing. To make him carry this around forever? Making him register as a sex offender for the remainder of his life certainly does that. There is no evidence that long sentences have any particular effect on someone other than making them less and less able to live a productive member of society. There are people who have some real compulsions that probably make them unfit to be in society – I don’t see that being the case here. I think the case here is an entitled frat boy surrounded by people telling him to get girls wasted so you can have your way with them. So that’s what he did. The only reasons I see being given that the punishment doesn’t fit the crime is that people who do less serious things get harsher punishments. That is unquestionably true, but it is somewhat backwards to say that he deserves a harsher punishment because we get so many others wrong.
So fuckboi Rapist McGee loses his freedom of movement for a few months, and this is fair treatment to the victim who is going to be permanently changed for the rest of her life by Rapist McGee’s choice to violate her.
Yep, totally fair. I second this question from sonofojblake:
Nothing, because prison is harsh, unlike getting raped while barely conscious, which is apparently Edward’s idea of a casual fucking vacation?
Go chew on some rusty nails, buddy.
To teach him what his father apparently forgot to–that he’s not entitled to anyone’s bodies, up to and including unconscious women.
So is having dirt and pine needles shoved up your genitals. Your point?
You want a rapist to be a “productive member of society”? What about all the victims who have to give up their productivity to work on their trauma caused by the rape?
Oh good, raping an unconscious woman isn’t a big deal.
F.U.C.K Y.O.U
But it is somewhat backwards to say he deserves a lighter punishment because there are worse criminals out there.
I have no qualms declaring you a human shitstain.
That depends on who you ask. For some people, it’s to inflict unhappiness, either in vengeance or to provide a clear disincentive to commit a crime. The disincentive thing doesn’t seem to work all that well, but it is hard to quantify crimes not committed.
I think the main purpose, at least for me, is to remove someone from a position in which they can harm people, after they’ve shown that they present a real danger.
This rapist presents a real danger, and in the context of a justice system that routinely gives multi-year sentences to people who have never committed a violent crime – and yes, context matters – under half a year not only sends a message to the world that this wasn’t “serious”, it also sends that message to the rapist, and confirms the belief he clearly already holds, that what he did wasn’t a big deal.
And the fact that he thinks that means that he’s still a danger to his fellow humans, and therefor should be kept away from them until such time as he can demonstrate that he is not, and that he understands both that what he did was wrong, and WHY it was wrong.
There are problems with our justice system, and with the way so many people go to jail without trial. This is not one of those cases. There was a trial, and he was convicted of three felonies, and NOBODY questions what happened. The only question – in the minds of the rapist and his supporters – is whether what happened was OK.
And I have to say, I find it disturbing how often people – like you – seem to like changing the topic of conversation away from the injustice at hand. I’m happy to have a conversation about how we ought to deal with criminals in general, but in this context, it smacks of deliberate distraction. This is like a white person in a conversation about racism demanding that everybody talk about how not all white people are racist.
I made my comment to Edward Gemmer before I read the letter. If Mr. Gemmer has not read the letter, I suggest he do so. If he still does not feel that Brock Turner received an absurdly light sentence, I can only conclude that Mr. Gemmer lacks any trace of empathy. It is a powerful and moving account of the hell that the victim has experienced since the rape. It should be required reading for all incoming freshmen at all colleges.
@Edward Gemmer, 8:
I think this is applicable: https://xkcd.com/1053/
It’s about fun stuff, but it applies to shitty stuff too. That’s why it’s important to keep talking about this, whenever it happens.
Also, Mr. Gemmer. I agree that the prison system is absurd and counterproductive, but here’s the thing: That’s not what we’re talking about. This post is about rape culture. You charging in here in the very first comment with talk about aspects of the judicial and prison systems that are completely orthogonal to the point of the article makes you look a right bugger. It’s totally derailing, and derailing a discussion about rape makes you part of the problem. That’s what we mean by “rape culture”. You are rape culture. Rape culture is you. Is that really what you want to be?
This.
@ Johnny Vector
I get what you’re saying, but it’s also worth pointing out that if someone doesn’t understand that, it’s a problem. This isn’t just about learning shitty stuff, it’s about the consequences their actions have.
This is also different from that because for most people who don’t understand the harm sexual assault can do, it’s not that they’ve never been exposed to that information. I seriously doubt there is anybody in this country who has never heard that rape is bad.
I don’t know whether it’s willful ignorance – in which case mockery may be a useful tool to further understanding – or something else, but I don’t believe that the people who don’t get it have simply never encountered the notion before.
@ Abe
And I have to say, I find it disturbing how often people – like you – seem to like changing the topic of conversation away from the injustice at hand. I’m happy to have a conversation about how we ought to deal with criminals in general, but in this context, it smacks of deliberate distraction. This is like a white person in a conversation about racism demanding that everybody talk about how not all white people are racist.
I don’t really understand that. Surely the entire point people are questioning is his sentence. Which is what I’m talking about.
@Johnny
Also, Mr. Gemmer. I agree that the prison system is absurd and counterproductive, but here’s the thing: That’s not what we’re talking about. This post is about rape culture. You charging in here in the very first comment with talk about aspects of the judicial and prison systems that are completely orthogonal to the point of the article makes you look a right bugger. It’s totally derailing, and derailing a discussion about rape makes you part of the problem. That’s what we mean by “rape culture”. You are rape culture. Rape culture is you. Is that really what you want to be?
???
The article is about rape culture and racism, and specifically about two cases, mostly Brock Turner. It somewhat assumes that Brock Turner is just getting away with it. My point is that what is happening to Brock Turner is a brutal thing to do to another human being. I’m not sure if this fact makes you uncomfortable, but it’s also a little appalling that you could so easily decide that someone being locked in a cage without their consent is somehow no big deal. That is rape culture, where someone’s right to bodily autonomy is abridged as easily as drinking water. I don’t think it’s changing the subject to talk about these cases honestly instead of using euphemisms to avoid being uncomfortable.
Edward Gemmer @17:
Are you applying the term “rape culture” to what is happening to Brock Turner, the rapist who violated the bodily autonomy of his victim? If so, you have some truly twisted beliefs.
In our societal context, Brock turner IS “just getting away with it”. Context matters. Equal treatment under the law ALSO matters, and when people are NOT treated equally in our justice system, that sends a message both about how we view the relative worth of those people, AND about how we view the severity of their crimes.
That is “the entire point that people are questioning”, and that seems to be the point you are determined to not get.
@ Abe,
In our cultural context, Brock turner IS “just getting away with it”. Context matters. Equal treatment under the law ALSO matters, and when people are NOT treated equally in our justice system, that sends a message both about how we view the relative worth of those people, AND about how we view the severity of their crimes.
That is “the entire point that people are questioning”, and that seems to be the point you are determined to not get.
I get it just fine. I don’t have any difficulty understanding your point. My point is that if you are going to talk about rape culture and consent and prison, you better indicate what prison is, which is caging someone without their consent. If you think six months of brutality is not sufficient, fine, but you should not be surprised that some people do think six months of brutality is sufficient. We don’t have 2.3 million prisoners because judges are lenient.
Are you applying the term “rape culture” to what is happening to Brock Turner, the rapist who violated the bodily autonomy of his victim? If so, you have some truly twisted beliefs.
No, my point is that jail and prison are brutal things, and treating them as no big deal is part of rape culture, because you are essentially calling the caging of another human being no big deal. It is a big deal. It may be deserved and appropriate or necessary, but that doesn’t change what it is. In our society, we approve of caging people so easily that it is normalized for almost anything (for example, see the black lady that went to jail for an unpaid parking ticket). Yes, caging someone isn’t specifically sexual violence, but what would you call a system which has almost no respect for someone’s bodily autonomy or consent? How is that not part of the problem?
Do you also view fines as theft?
Community service as slave labor?
You seem to be trying to claim that the punishment for a crime as morally equivalent to the crime itself, as an attempt to pretend that prison is a consent issue. That, in itself, is either a gross misunderstanding, or a gross misrepresentation of how consent works in our society, AND a flagrant dismissal of the crime in question.
Edward Gemmer @21:
Brock Turner had no respect for his victim’s bodily autonomy. He is not being “caged” without cause or due process.
Do you also view fines as theft?
Not really, though certainly, they can be. Read up on the Ferguson case, or just read Ta-nehisi Coates summary, where the police used justice system as a revenue collection system. Is it ethical to use the criminal justice system as a way to fund the city’s treasury? I wouldn’t think so, but it is a pretty common system.
Community service as slave labor?
The 13th Amendment forbids slavery except as punishment for a crime. If you google pictures of inmates working in a field, they probably don’t look that different from what fields looked like on plantations worked by slaves.
You seem to be trying to claim that the punishment for a crime as morally equivalent to the crime itself, as an attempt to pretend that prison is a consent issue. That, in itself, is either a gross misunderstanding, or a gross misrepresentation of how consent works in our society, AND a flagrant dismissal of the crime in question.
Again, no. I’m not conflating rape and prison. I’m saying what prison and jail is – caging someone without their consent. I think we should be more willing to call it what it is when we talk about it. You seem to think prison isn’t a consent issue – what is it other than a consent issue? I don’t understand what your point is there. How am I “misunderstanding” what prison is?
And it is clearly relevant. Brian Banks chose to plead guilty to a terrible crime he didn’t commit and agree to go to prison for five years, because the alternative was chancing going to prison for life. Is that justice? Did he deserve that? I wouldn’t think so, but it is a natural consequence of huge sentences in rape cases.
Brock Turner had no respect for his victim’s bodily autonomy. He is not being “caged” without cause or due process.
True
This “poor, caged rapist” stuff in context of this post is just gross.
Fucking gross.
Edward, you have stated that you get the point, and from what I can tell you don’t actually disagree with it. It’s also abundantly clear that you’re arguing against a straw man – nobody is claiming that time in jail is pleasant or by consent of the convict sent there.
You are continuing to make this a conversation about how terrible prison is, and there’s no point to that, other than distracting from the actual topic of the post. I’m just about done with this.
Edward Gemmer:
I completely disagree with the bolded part. In the sense that this rapist made a choice. He knew there were potential consequences. In most law cases, there is what is called implied consent. I think in this case, you’ve got it.
Also, a more accurate statement would be:
In that context, do you still want to make that argument? Because when you actually put it in context, it seems to lose some if its punch, no?
I completely disagree with the bolded part. In the sense that this rapist made a choice. He knew there were potential consequences. In most law cases, there is what is called implied consent. I think in this case, you’ve got it.
I’m not a huge fan of that way of thinking – for one, it seems designed to take out all the culpability for everyone involved except the criminal. “You chose this, not me!” It is applicable to all crimes, no matter how minor, and functions to remove all fault from society and place it all on the perpetrator. It’s also widespread when we talk about actual rape – “what was she thinking looking like that. What did she expect?”
No. Prison is society’s method of brutalizing someone to punish them/protect society/teach a lesson/ what have you. It is not consensual.
I do think it is logical to take it into account in sentencing, however. The amount of premeditation and planning someone does is certainly a factor. It was here, too – Turner was smashed and probably not in great position to analyze the consequences of his actions and violating social contracts and laws of the state. Certainly, the judge took that into account.
It is not “society’s method of brutalizing somebody”.
It is society’s attempt to deal with behavior that is considered harmful to society. The brutality is largely a side-effect that has been accepted and occasionally welcomed.
Beyond that, you’re well into “it wasn’t as bad because he was drunk” territory, and there you’ve gone into full-blown rape apologist territory. Fuck off.
Beyond that, you’re well into “it wasn’t as bad because he was drunk” territory, and there you’ve gone into full-blown rape apologist territory. Fuck off.
What are you talking about? Believe it or not, people take all sorts of things into account when sentencing people. The Federal Guidelines are full of such factors. Anyways, I’m not sure what you mean by “brutality is a side effect.” No, that’s the entire point. Judges don’t send people to prison as some sort of vacation.
Technically, imprisonment is just the revocation of freedom, which is not particularly brutal in itself. The dual purpose is keeping people like this rapist away from the rest of society, given the danger he presents.
No shit people take all sorts of things into account. My problem is that you think his decision to get drunk and prey on women should be mitigated by the “get drunk” part.
To me, that says that you think the judge was correct to take it into account and give him a lighter sentence because of it.
To me, that says that you think the judge was correct to take it into account and give him a lighter sentence because of it.
It wouldn’t bother you more if he was stone cold sober and did that verses being fucked up?
Not really – I don’t accept alcohol as an excuse for violating another human being.
Especially because it’s so easy to drink a bit and claim it was the booze.
He had been harassing women at a party the weekend before, and he made the decision to go do it again, only this time someone was unfortunate enough to be vulnerable.
You have a responsibility to know how you behave when drunk, and to take that into account.
If you carry out a violent crime, the fact that you first rendered yourself intoxicated should be an aggravating factor, not a mitigating one. If you crash your car into mine while drunk, try the “well I was drunk, and therefore less responsible” defence and see how far you get.
I don’t believe it. I. Don’t. Fucking. Believe. It.
Yeah, why do we social justice warriors not talk about speed ticket? Like the government taking someone’s money without consent is no big deal.
Edward Gemmer, go get raped. Then go to jail for six months and tell us what is worse, you heartless piece of shit.
On the farm they have a way of dealing with bulls that are overly aggressive and violent in pursuit of and behavior to females. They cut their nuts off and hormone levels shift in a few hours. The change is quite remarkable. One day they are highly territorial and violent, the next, calm and mainly interested in grass. The term having their focus shifted from “ass to grass”, and the many variations, has its origin in this practice.
Okay … I hear you … it sounds cruel. Perhaps that is what attracts some to it. A little revenge feels right for deeply and maliciously traumatizing a human being to the point where you risk ruining their lives and their relationship with their own bodies. Anyone thinking rape is trivial should remember that suicide is common for rape victims.
On the other hand, as much as it might feel right, locking the rapist up for the long haul doesn’t do much. You can’t un-rape someone and it can potentially add another layer of guilt, and confusion as to who the real victim is. Even imposing sex offender status is more slow torture and feel-good legal candy than justice. People change and there is little evidence that sex offender laws prevent further sex related offenses.
Castration does away with all that. There are several different methods:
http://www.wikihow.com/Castrate-Bulls-and-Bull-Calves
Think of it as “disarming” the attacker. A rape victim may, or may not, want to observe the proceedings. The procedures are more or less painful, any pain is short term, and the risk of complications is quite low.
The best part is that castration could potentially cure the problem, and provide some measure of justice , and a little vengeance, without imposing a burden on the rapist, or society for what might have been a single heinous act. It doesn’t make the situation worse.
It is, for all practical purposes, permanent so some discretion is needed. Rape is always bad but some rapes are worse than others. Violent, aggravated, serial rape, repeat offenders,and rape of children cry out for the harshest punishment. Castration should be on the table. IMHO Brock Turner qualifies.
The good news is that after the procedure, relieved of those crazy-causing hormones, Brock can be released and live a full and productive life.
It works wonders for cattle. Why not humans?
Brutal punishments don’t deter crime, and humans have more of an awareness of what happened to them and why, and can act in response to that. Castration gives two incentives – one is to vent the anger over what happened, and the other is to show that it doesn’t work.
Sounds like a good way to get someone to hurt more people.
Beyond that, we KNOW that people are wrongly convicted on a regular basis, un something like castration is irrevocable. Even if you think that it’s OK to use punishments like that (or like the death penalty), wrongful convictions guarantee that it’ll happen to someone who did no wrong at all, and that person will probably be black.
In fact this country has a nasty history of castrating black men for supposed rape, or looking at women wrong. You might want to look into that.
Oh, and there’s the fact that humans aren’t cows, and if the goal is a society that respects basic human rights, mutilation as punishment does not serve that goal, whether it’s cutting off a hand for theft, or cutting out a tongue for libel, or cutting off testicles for rape.
It would serve no purpose other than vengeance, and that is not the foundation for a just system.
Yeah, humans are a wee bit more complicated than cows in their behaviour. And if you read the victims letter, you’ll see that Turner did not in fact penetrate her with his penis, so castration would not have “disarmed” him.